The budget carrier, which flies from Prestwick airport in Ayrshire, complained of "confusion and duplication" in Scotland's approach to tourism promotion.

Its criticisms were contained in formal submissions to a Scottish Parliament committee which is reviewing the executive's tourism strategy.

They come one day after the Scottish National Party called for the country's tourism body, VisitScotland, to break away from it's UK counterpart.

Ryanair wants VisitScotland to abandon niche marketing

Ryanair's submission to the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee on Wednesday called for more focused selling of Scotland.

In a written submission to the committee, Ryanair said: "VisitScotland (the former Scottish Tourism Board) should be responsible for the promotion of Scotland across the world.

"There is currently too much confusion and duplication in tourism promotion throughout Scotland, with councils each having tourism departments with budgets supplied through the enterprise offices."

The submission also dismisses the concept of "niche marketing" like golf and walking as "a costly waste of time".

It said: "Tell consumers how to get here at low cost, and where they can get more info (website) - that's all that's needed. "

'Major put-off'

The airline also calls for a more attention to be paid to European markets instead of expensive attempt to attract visitors from North America.

"The lesson to be learnt is that VisitScotland needs to focus on drawing its main tourism potential from the direct access markets that it has," said Ryanair.

"Scotland is very well known across the world, but the cost of getting there is a major put-off, so more focus should be turned to markets where access is good.

The US market is Scotland's biggest single provider of tourists outwith the lucrative domestic market, and one which we value greatly

VisitScotland spokesman

"More of the budget should be dedicated to promoting Scotland to people that can come at short notice, or in addition to their main holiday."

But a spokesman for VisitScotland defended its approach.

"We are marketing Scotland as a strongly branded tourism destination that provides a very special holiday experience, and meets the needs of the consumer," he said.

"This is underpinned by a streamlined product portfolio on five themes - active Scotland, business tourism, cities, culture, and freedom of Scotland - which are essentially the reasons why people visit Scotland.

"The US market is Scotland's biggest single provider of tourists outwith the lucrative domestic market, and one which we value greatly.

'Promoting routes'

"In recent years we have been investing heavily in this market, but we have been ploughing more significant sums of marketing money into the European market as in these times we see a greater potential for Scotland in our key continental markets such as Germany, France and Belgium."

The spokesman said that it was "important to continue" with a commitment to the US market and prepare for a time when it returned to full growth.

He added: "VisitScotland has been working with the budget carriers such as Ryanair for a number of years, and have invested heavily in promoting their routes from France Germany, Dublin, Norway and Belgium to Scotland.

"This organisation recognises and values the contribution direct access and the budget airlines make to Scotland's tourism economy and will continue to support new routes and market existing services to Scotland."

Ryanair's commercial director, Michael Cawley, gave evidence to the committee, along with senior figures from British Airways, easyJet, and Scottish airport bosses.